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NASA News

With the addition of a now-fully-assembled new robot to the International Space Station, the station and space shuttle Endeavour crews have a busy day of robotics work ahead of them.

The crew’s day started at 1:28 p.m. CDT. Their wake-up call came in the form of Ayaka Hirahara’s “Hoshi Tsumugi no Uta” – a Japanese song that translates to “Song of Spinning Stars.” The song was played for Mission Specialist Takao Doi, a Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut.

The first robotic work of the day is scheduled to start at 3:43 p.m. when Mission Specialist Leopold Eyharts and International Space Station Flight Engineer Garrett Reisman will tuck away the arms of Dextre, the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator. That will prepare the robot for its move to its temporary home on a Destiny laboratory power and data grapple fixture, by Eyharts and Pilot Gregory H. Johnson.

Attaching Dextre to Destiny will free up the station’s robotic arm, Canadarm2, which has been holding Dextre since early this morning. That will allow Johnson and Reisman to use Canadarm2 to remove the Spacelab Logistics Pallet that Dextre was assembled on from the station’s truss and stow it back inside Endeavour’s cargo bay for return to Earth. Canadarm2 will then be attached to the station’s mobile base system so that it can be moved along the truss to its next worksite by Eyharts and Expedition 16 Commander Peggy Whitson.

Other activities for the day include resizing spacesuits by Mission Specialists Robert L. Behnken and Mike Foreman for their next spacewalk on flight day 11, and two hours of off-duty time for the shuttle crew members.

The next STS-123 status report will be issued near the end of the crew’s day at about 5 a.m. Wednesday, or earlier if events warrant.